On Sunday night, Kering and L’Oréal Group announced a major deal on beauty. The top-line move was the sale of Kering Beauté to L’Oréal, but there was another, interesting play: the two companies are teaming up to explore the opportunities at the crossroads of luxury wellness and longevity.
Under a 50-50 joint venture agreement, the two groups will partner to “craft cutting-edge experiences and services combining L’Oréal’s innovation capabilities with Kering’s deep understanding of luxury clients”, according to the release. “Together, we will also venture into new frontiers of wellness, combining the unrivalled expertise of L’Oréal with our unique luxury reach,” Kering CEO Luca de Meo said in a statement.
Asked by analysts to provide further details during L’Oréal’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said: “It’s very early days to give you details. It will take the form of a joint venture between Kering and L’Oréal with a clear goal, which is responding to the strong demand for services and experiences that are linked to well-being, health and longevity.”
The deal includes the right to enter a licensing agreement with Gucci after its expiration with Coty, and a joint venture to explore the business opportunities of longevity.
“It’s an ambitious project,” he continued. “We put joint resources in it. We will bring our expertise of skincare, of longevity research. We will also bring what we’ve learnt from our services we offer in the Carita store that we have in Paris. Kering will bring their expertise in luxury experience, their clienteling. They are used to focusing on high-net-worth individuals who are the primary targets of this type of business. I think it will be a great collaboration. We are both very excited about it because it’s one of the megatrends of the moment. So more in the weeks and months to come.”
The move underscores how important longevity has become in the global beauty and wellness landscape. 2025 was hailed as the year consumers would be obsessed with living — and looking younger — for longer. Now, the race is underway to become leaders in this space, and clearly Kering and L’Oréal are taking this seriously.
While Kering Beauté focused on fragrances, the new partnership aims to “unlock considerable value across high-potential categories”, according to the release. “Expect to see Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Gucci skincare,” says Charles-Louis Scotti, head of luxury goods equity research at Kepler Cheuvreux.
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L’Oréal has already been exploring the possibilities in longevity, dedicating its inaugural conference to the concept on 10 June. “We showcased how the beauty industry will need to shift from symptom-correction to root-cause intervention to extend the skin’s cellular health span,” Hieronimus said during L’Oréal’s second-quarter earnings call in July. In January, L’Oréal Group launched a tool that promises to determine the skin’s rate of ageing.
While luxury fashion continues to navigate choppy waters, McKinsey identified longevity as a pocket of growth in its latest Future of Wellness survey, published in May. “The demand for products and services to support longevity continues to grow,” according to the report, which cites skincare products targeting long-term skin health and wrinkle prevention, supplements that claim to slow cellular ageing and epigenetic age-testing kits among notable offerings. Up to 60 per cent of consumers across markets report that healthy ageing is a “top” or “very important” priority, per the report, while also stressing the resilience of the $2 trillion global wellness market.
The cosmetics industry is catching the wave in a big way, with ‘longevity’ now widely used in place of ‘anti-ageing’. “The main difference is that longevity is measurable through biomarkers. Before, there was very little scientific evidence: you were hearing about the stem cells, the exosomes, but there was minimal scientific evidence,” says Alejandro Bataller, co-founder and managing director of Sha, a longevity institution with locations in Spain, Mexico and soon the UAE. “Now, we have much more data available to us.”
Longevity is among the key trends shaping the hospitality industry. At Sha, the weight control programme used to be the most in demand. Now, it’s the “advanced longevity” programme, which includes measuring 200 biomarkers, “lifestyle optimisation” and treatments spanning hyperbaric chambers, cryotherapy, red light therapy, cellular regeneration and beyond.
“Nowadays, luxury is not about having a super car, or a watch, or the latest handbag. It is more about your appearance, your vitality, your energy,” says Bataller. “Being healthy, fresh, agile is the best representation of luxury nowadays."
“Longevity is one of the hottest trends,” says Mario Ortelli, managing partner at M&A advisory Ortelli Co. “It may be too early to say what this joint venture between L’Oréal and Kering encompasses regarding longevity, but given the length of the partnership between the two groups — 50 years — there could be a time when it can become a sizeable business.”
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